What Does it Mean to be Educated?

When I look around and see the way some people behave, act and react, I'm forced to wonder if being educated only implies being schooled or being vast in knowledge regarding to academics alone. I want to believe that being educated goes beyond just attending schools, writing examinations, having first class or second class and all of that. Who then is an educated man?

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There are numerous activities that would count as educating people because of the change that we notice in their lives. We can call such activities educative because they are in line with certain established guidelines for determining what education is. One of such guidelines is that, at a point in the life of a person, we should be able to say that he has acquired education sufficiently and call him an educated person. We should also be able to identify the process through which he acquires his education and agree that it is acceptable for that purpose.

In fact, the means of acquiring education cannot be said to be good if on th long run, the product of the system is not an educated person. When someone pursues the course of being educated, it is imploed that he wants to improve himself, that is, he wants to be better, living a better life. Education consists of a chain of processes that leads to having an improved outlook.

However, just going through the University or college, does not automatically give one that improved and better outlook. A person has to work for that improved character by participating in as many learning activities as possible. Not everyone who goes through the University can be said to be an educated person. Some people are just miseducated literates.

An educated person is known by his character and lifestyle and not by paper (certificate). Many people do not pursue education for its own sake; some go to school for their parents and some go because their parents ask them to go. A hallmark of a good school is the extent to which it Kindles in the students a desire to go on with the values which they have been exposed when the pressures are off.

A person who could at any cost pursue truth for its own sake or seek to improve himself or make something of a fitting form would qualify to be referred to as an educated person. Also, to be educated, an individual must possess a body or knowledge and some kind of power of the mind to apply this in his practical life. This implies that he would employ knowledge he has mastered to demonstrate principles of worthy social life.

An educated man will always pursue truth at all cost. He will be consistent because he will always try to uphold the truth in his lifestyle. On the whole, it must be noted that, it is what a person does with his knowledge that makes him an educated person. A person may acquire some much knowledge but when he fails to relate it and apply it to his daily life, such person is only 'knowledgeably' and not educated.